Now there’s no question: Carlos Rodon is baseball’s best pitcher — at least if you’re counting since the beginning of July.

The left-hander threw a sparkling eight scoreless innings during the White Sox’s 1-0 win against the Indians on Friday night, punctuated by Daniel Palka’s first career walk-off homer. Palka gave Guaranteed Rate Field fireworks, but it was Rodon throwing fire.

Rodon looked strong throughout, still comfortable throwing 97 mph fastballs to Michael Brantley in the eighth. Most of his trouble came in the first, when he walked two.

“Just took a little bit to settle in the first,” Rodon said. “Tough at-bat from (Francisco) Lindor to lead off. Thought I punched him out, but it was a ball. ... And then another tough at-bat from (Edwin) Encarnacion. Luckily we got through it and out of that inning.”

Rodon was just as effective with breaking balls, particularly sliders, his go-to pitch on all five strikeouts.

“I feel pretty good,” he said. “I might not have all my stuff, but it’s working.”

Friday’s outing dropped his ERA since July 1 to 1.28, eclipsing the Giants’ Dereck Rodriguez (1.50) to lead the majors in that span.

So does this mean he’s the Sox’s best pitcher? Earlier in the season, the answer was Reynaldo Lopez without question. The fact it’s up for debate now is a good problem.

“You guys have asked me about Lopey, Lucas (Giolito), ’Los,” Renteria said. “The type of stuff and the way that they command on the days that they command, like he did today, yeah, for sure.

“We sent him out there in the eighth, this was his game pretty much. We ended up starting to think about helping him out, but he ended up taking control of the landscape today and doing what he wanted to do against a pretty good team.”

Photos from the White Sox-Indians game at Guaranteed Rate Field on Friday, August 10, 2018.

Rodon said the staff feeds off one another, regardless of whose turn it is on top.

“It rubs off on other guys when a guy throws well,” he said. “You take that as motivation. You don’t want to be the guy who screws it up. I build off of it when a guy has a good start.”

Yoan Moncada, meanwhile, had a moral victory of sorts. Or perhaps a morale victory is more like it. Moncada walked and doubled, though he did strike out, bumping his MLB-leading total to 164.

Like Rodon, Moncada has been acclaimed as one of the foundational pieces in the Sox rebuild, but the second baseman had been scuffling lately, mired in a .122 slump over his previous 19 games. The primary leadoff man was dropped to eighth in Friday’s lineup for the first time since the Sox acquired the former Red Sox prospect in the Chris Sale trade in 2016.

Strikeouts have been a problem all season. At times he has been too discriminating, electing to take some hittable pitches.

Before the game, Renteria said, “I don’t think there’s pressure for him” in the leadoff role, but he hoped the move down the lineup would give Moncada a different perspective.

“Trying to give Moncy a break, push him back a little bit,” Renteria said. “Still need him to be in there; we need him to get his at-bats. We’re going to give him a little breath as opposed to just sitting him and not playing him. Have him watch other guys go about their business ... not put him in the situation where he feels he has to do something by leading off.”

In Moncada’s first at-bat against starter Shane Bieber, caution served him well. He took three balls in the upper inside corner, his weakest area, and walked on a high fastball over the middle.

Having built some confidence, Moncada cranked a liner off the right-field wall for a double, just his third extra-base hit this month and second in as many games. However, he struck out in his next plate appearance, looking at Oliver Perez’s sinker.

Moncada eventually will return to the leadoff spot, Renteria said. Nick Delmonico handled Friday night’s duties and went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.

Sox hitters overall couldn’t do much with Bieber, who struck out eight in 62/3 innings and gave up three hits.

Palka struck out three times against him but launched Neil Ramirez’s 1-2 fastball to left field leading off the ninth.

“I was looking up,” Palka said. “They were getting me on some bad pitches to hit down, whether it was heaters or breaking balls early in the game. I just wanted something up in the zone.

“I didn’t think I’d get another one after I missed the first pitch, but he came back to it and I got it.”